Let's talk about BITCHES!
Payette Lake, McCall IdahoAs I said in the prior post, McCall was the coolest thing about Idaho. We played on a Sunday evening at Crusty's Pizza, a casual joint that served up some stellar pies. The place is owned by a nice Crusty named Vern. He's a restaurant vet from the Nederland/Boulder area who took his considerable culinary skills to McCall about 10 years ago to start his kick ass little place. As I'm starting to find out the more & more we get around the country, many of these restaurant owners that we play for are either former or frustrated musicians. Music & food seemingly go hand in hand. Culturally speaking, I guess this is a simple thing to understand. People have been gathering for food-music-dance, well, since people have been gathering. I've maintained for a while now that if I get burned out with music at any point, I'll probably pursue a path in the culinary arts. However, the way things are working out on our tour, I'm hoping that's a loooong way off.
To be quite honest, as of right now, it's August 11th. I'm trying to write about a show we had in Idaho on July 25th. Time has been flying and no matter what you may think about "life on the road", this can be very hard work and extremely tiring. The easiest part of my day is when I'm on the stage, playing a 3 hour set. What most people don't realize -- what I didn't exactly realize is that leading up to a gig on the road, there are innumerable variables that factor into your day and how easy or difficult it can be; Such as:
Waking up.
Yep, that's probably the toughest. Actually, it's not for me as my body likes to jolt awake anywhere from 4-6 hours after I've gone to sleep. For example, If I finally get to lay down at 3:34 am, inevitably, I will wake up at 7:34 am. Silly, right? All of you lucky folks out there than can easily sleep til noon, don't take that for granted. This waking up early thing is a curse, particularly when I am keeping the "late to bed, early to rise" schedule for 4 or 5 or 9 days in a row. However, it leads to the second most difficult thing on tour:
Being the a-hole that wakes the rest of the band up.
That one reason alone is why bands that can afford to have a crew with them hire a tour manager, or, the a-hole that wakes the band up and keeps us on schedule. I have somehow taken on this role and I don't really cherish it.
The third most difficult thing on tour:
Choosing between a burger, a burger with bacon, a burger with a fried egg (oooooohhh, fancy!), or the special house burger that generally consists of the same unique ingredients from town to town. Somehow, this incredibly unique one-of-a-kind hamburger has one common element. It's got the exact same name from city to city, except it's different. On this tour:
Cody Burger
Billings Burger
Livingston Burger
Big Fork Burger (no fork but it was made with Yak)
Missoula Buger
Philipsburger (Meth! Not even once!)
Bauer Ranch Burger (the best on tour)
Jackson HotBurger, served naked
Twin Forks Burger
McCall Burger
Boise Burger w/fries
Portland(emo)Burger
Bendburger
Medford (Oh, sorry, we didn't remember you were coming to play tonight, maybe we can get a metal band to open for you guys) Burger
NorthernCali SuperKindHeadySourDesilGrapePurpleurpleStarlightGPSLadyisbuggingme Burger
Berkley Freak Flag Burger
San Francisco Treat Burger w/special sauce
Tahoe Burger. North side or South side?
Elko Burger
Park City Burger
or....
A home-sweet-home Cherry Cricket Burger
Sorry if the photos are kind of lacking this time around. I've been taking pics but my camera is in Scott's car. He and the crew are currently at Lake Tahoe, swimming in crystal clear green/blue water as I sit in the dark, listening to the golf channel, drinking a glass of wine out of my $5.49 bottle of Pinot Noir that I bought at 7-11. Oh, I had some Taco Bell about an hour and a half ago, completely wiping out all the wonderful fresh food I had at my Mom's house during a very relaxing stay in Napa Valley. I'm a glutton for punishment, I suppose, however, nobody can ever accuse me of lacking class.
Seeing that I've managed to sidestep about 40% of our tour in this entry, I'll simply continue to ignore most of Idaho, all of Oregon and California in future entries. To those concerned, those stops simply didn't happen. To those unconcerned, send me a private email and I'll respond with a picture of my middle finger flipping you off, in code:
00111 0101 0011 11100 0101011100 010 11100 10101 0000111010 0101010 1010 10FU
I'm considering walking across the room to watch pre-season football. Maybe I should hop in the shower and clean up before my first gig in 5 days(!)
Viagra commercials are funny.
Oh, wanted to let everyone know that The Congress will be at The Walnut Room on September 11th, 2010. The show will mark about a year of our band being together. I looked at my calendar today in which I log every gig that I've done. I calculated that The Congress has done around 100 shows in the year we've been in existence . Around 60 in the Denver metro/front range/Colorado area and almost 40 around the nation. AND... we've almost sold 1,000 CD's!
What a year!
Thanks to everyone for the continuing support and for checking out the blog. Couldn't do it without you, even though I'd prefer it that way.
Oh, one last thing. AT&T can suck it. After driving from coast to coast in 2010, I've found that my freaking phone works less than half the time around the country. Forget "coverage maps", that's a bunch of BS. Jonathan is rolling with a Droid on Verizon he gets full 3G service where the iPhone don't work a lick. Just sayin...
Live Long and Perspire
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